Page 300 of Nobody's Girl

Kyle jumps into the conversation. “Ally, it’s okay. We’re not uncomfortable at all. We want to stay together.”

“I see,” she says as she stands up. “Well, we should head inside and get ready to go.”

Eden grabs her cover up and drapes it across her shoulders, then pulls his shirt on. “Let us walk you out, Linda,” he tells her as he wraps his arm around Ally’s waist, then takes Linda’s hand, leading her back to the patio door.

Kyle and I lag behind a bit. As we come into the foyer, we see Eden and Ally at the front door with Linda.

“It was nice to see you again, Linda,” Eden says.

She turns to Ally. “It was really nice to see you, Mrs. Fontaine,” she says.

Ally speaks through clenched teeth, “It was nice to see you again too, Ms. Banks,”

Linda quickly pecks Eden on the cheek, then hurries out to her car, which I see is a rather expensive Mercedes.

“Nice car. She must make a lot of money,” Ally says.

“Oh, yes, the foundation pays her very well. She works really hard, you know,” Eden says.

“Oh, don’t I know that,” she says, and her teeth are still clenched.

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Eden asks her as they walk up the staircase several steps in front of us.

She turns to look at him in astonishment. “It was excruciating, Eden!” she yells.

He pauses, looking into her eyes, then begins moving up the stairs again. “You’re getting better. I couldn’t tell you were jealous at all. Well, not about me anyway. When you found out that Kyle and Laura would be sleeping together, your feathers seemed to get a bit ruffled,” he tells her

I guess Eden thought we were far enough behind them that we couldn’t hear him. I glance up at Kyle and ask, “Is Ally mad?”

“She’s seeing red, but I’m not sure why,” he says and I bolt after her.

“Alyssa Shaylee Devlin Fontaine, I want to talk to you right now,” I say, sternly. “Sorry, Eden, I have to talk to my best friend for a minute or two,” I apologize to him as I take her by her arm and pull her to her bedroom. “I don’t want Eden to hear what I have to say to you.”

“What the hell, Laura?” she asks.

I usher her into her room and close the door behind us. “Ally, I’m tired of this thing you have for Kyle.”

“I don’t have a thing for Kyle, Laura. I’m a happily married woman now,” she says as she pulls back from me.

“The hell you don’t. What was that crap out there? I saw the look on your face, Ally. When he told you we wanted to stay together, you were pissed. You might as well admit it,” I fire at her.

“Well, I wouldn’t call it pissed. I would call it concerned. I don’t want you to rush into things and hurt each other. I’m just looking out for both of you,” she says.

“Rush into things? Really, Al?” I say as I gesture to her. “Look at you. Talk about rushing.”

“Eden and I are different. We can’t ever leave each other. If you tire of Kyle, you can leave him,” she tells me.

“What makes you think I’ll tire of Kyle?” I ask.

“I don’t know,” she says as she falls on her bed. “Crap, I don’t really think that, Laura. I have these little, petty jealousies. I can’t explain it. I was jealous about that lady who showed up. It got my jealousy juices flowing.”

“Why would you be jealous of her? She’s old enough to be Eden’s aunt or something. I thought they probably were related, the way they acted together, like they had known each other for a long time.”

She pulls a pillow up and wraps her arms around it. “It’s a long story, Laura.”

I need to hear her story if I’m about to believe it’s not Kyle she jealous about. “You better give it to me, because I need to get to the bottom of this.”

“I can’t believe you’re making me tell you this,” she says, then hesitates. “The lady was Eden’s touch tutor. She taught him how to kiss and touch me properly.”